All Films (Alphabetical List)

Alphabetical list of films suggested by Friends.

Peaceweb's Movies with a Conscience

Last updated: November 21, 1997

A Nous la Liberte

France, 1931, B & W, Comedy, D: Rene Clair, 104 m
Two ex-convicts get jobs at a factory, where one works his way up to the job of owner, where he reduces workers to human machines. Faced with blackmail, he hits the road again with his old pal.

Aadalen 31

Sweden, 1969, Drama, D: Bo Widerberg, 100? m
A May Day parade of striking Swedish workers turns into a massacre of innocent people by the Swedish police. Based on a true story.

All Quiet on the Western Front

USA, 1930, B & W, Drama, D: Lewis Milestone, Original book: by Erich Maria Remarque, 105 m
This anti-war movie about German boys in World War I was banned by Hitler, as was the original book

USA, 1979, Drama, D: Frances Ford Coppola, Original Book: The Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad; Stars: Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, 150 m
A US special agent is sent up-river into Cambodia during the Vietnam War to kill a rogue officer.

Atomic Cafe, The

USA, 1986, Documentary, D: Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, Pierce Rafferty, 86 m
A look back at the 1960s propaganda on what to do in case of a nuclear attack and footage of nuclear explosions and their effect on the troops used as guinea pigs.

Belle Epoque

Spain, 1992, Comedy, D: Fernando Trueba, Stars: Fernando Gomez, Jorge Sanz, 109 m
At the time of the Spanish Civil War, a deserter is taken in by a farmer and wooed by his four daughters.

Birdman of Alcatraz, The

USA, 1962, Drama, D: John Frankenheimer, Stars: Burt Lancaster, Thelma Ritter, Karl Malden, 143 m
The film is based on the story of a man named Robert Stroud, imprisoned for life on the island prison of Alcatraz in California who became a world authority on ornithology.

Blade Runner

USA, 1982, Drama, D: Ridley Scott, Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, 117 m
Deckard, an L.A. cop in the year 2019, has the job of hunting and terminating replicants, sophisticated robots who have escaped a space colony and have infiltrated earth.

USA, 1976, Biography, D: Hal Ashby, Star: David Carradine, 147 m
The story of folk singer Woodie Guthrie, from the time he left his home in Texas in the 1930s to his success on radio in California to his death in 1963(?). Woody wrote "This Land is Your Land" and "The Plane Crash in Los Gatos Canyon".

Japan, 1956, B & W, Drama, D: Kon Ichikawa, Stars: Jun Hamamura, Yunosuke Ito, 116 m
After W.W. II, a Japanese soldier with a harp is sent to convince his fellow soldiers in Burma to surrender.

Burnt by the Sun

France/Russia, 1994, Drama, D: Nikita Mikhalkov, Stars: Oleg Menchikov, Nikita Mikhalkov, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, 146 m
Colonel Sergei Kotov, a hero of the Soviet Revolution, spends an idyllic summer at his wife's dacha with wife and his six-year-old daughter. His world changes when cousin Dmitri arrives from Moscow, and the hero suddenly become an enemy of the people.

Bye Bye Blues

Canada, 1989, Drama, D: Anne Wheeler, Writer: Anne Wheeler
A woman from small-town Saskatchewan gets the chance to become a lead singer in a dance band during the Second World War. Her romance with a member of the band leads to a confrontation when her husband, from whom she had not heard since his capture, finally returns.

USA, 1970, Satire, D: Mike Nichols; Original Book: Joseph Heller, Stars: Alan Arkin, Art Garfunkel, 121 m
A US bombardier in W.W. II learns the only way out of the Army is to go crazy; but if you want out, you're not crazy.

Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, La (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie)

USA, 1979, Drama, D: James Bridges ; Stars: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas 123 m
The cover-up of an accident at a California nuclear power plant entwines with the story of how television bends the news.

USA, 1978, Drama, D: Hal Ashby, Stars: Jane Fonda, Jon Voigt, Bruce Dern, 127 m
A woman falls in love with a disabled Vietnam vet who campaigns against the War while her husband is in Vietnam.

Cool Hand Luke

USA, 1967, Drama, D: Stuart Rosenberg, Stars: Paul Newman, George Kennedy, J. D. Cannon, 126 m
A drifter who deliberately defies the law winds up in jail, where things are even tougher, and only an unforgettable egg-eating contest provides relief.

Cry Freedom

UK, 1987, Drama, D: Richard Attenborough, Stars: Denzel Washington, Kevin Kline, 154 m
A white liberal newspaper editor in South Africa befriends a Black political leader, Steve Biko, who later dies at the hands of the police. The editor, charged under the censorship laws, escapes the country under a false passport.

Cry, the Beloved Country

USA, 1995, Drama, D: Darrell Roodt, Original Book: Alan Paton, Stars: James Earl Jones, Dembisa Kente, 120 m
In South Africa, a poor Black man, Absolom Kumalo, moves to Johannesburg and falls in with bad company. He is involved in the murder of a good white man. Absolom's brother, preacher Stephen Kumalo (James Earl Jones) is befriended by the white landowner whose son was killed.

Daens

Belgium, 1972, Drama, D: Stijn Coninx, Stars: Jan Decleir, Antje De Boeck, Gerard Desarthe, 138 m
A good-hearted priest, Father Daens, is sent to an industrial town where children slave at mechanized looms. The conflict between Daens and the local socialists turns upside down when they realize his sympathy for the workers and unite to elect him to Parliament.

USA, 1995, Drama, D: Tim Robbins, Stars: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, Robert Prosky, 122 m
A man convicted of murder and awaiting execution on death row writes to a nun, who works to set him free. Film is based on the true story of Sister Helen Prejean, a Louisiana nun who tried to end the death penalty in the USA.

Declin de l'empire americaine, Le

Canada, 1986, Comedy, D: Denys Arcand, 101 m
Four university teachers - a gay man and three heterosexual men (one married, one celibate, one with a girl friend) - gather at a cottage on a lake to prepare dinner for the four women who arrive later. The discussion turns around sex, the female body, their love lives, and the political passions of the 1960s. The women then have the mirror image of this dialogue.

Germany/Poland, 1990, Drama, D: Agnieszka Holland, Stars: Solomon Perel, Marco Hofschneider, 113 m
A young Soviet Jew, captured by Hitler's Army, pretends to be German to save his life and is taken to an elite Hitler Youth School in Germany.

Fahrenheit 451

France, 1967, Drama, D: Francois Truffaut, Stars: Julie Christie, Oskar Werner, Cheryl Cusack, Original book: by Ray Bradbury, 111 m
Truffaut's only film in English, the film portrays a civilization where all books are banned.

Fly Away Home

USA, 1996, Drama, D: Carroll Ballard; Stars: Jeff Daniels, Anna Paquin, Dana Delany, 110 m
Amy, 13, loses her mother in an car accident in New Zealand, and goes to Canada to live with her father. She finds a nest of goose eggs and helps them hatch, but then has to learn how to teach the goslings to fly south.

For the Boys

USA, 1991, D: Mark Rydell, Stars: Bette Midler, James Caan, George Segal, 148 m
Dixie, an unknown singer, gets her chance with star Eddie in the USO in WW II, then has to face Korea, McCarthyism, and Vietnam.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

USA, 1943, Drama, D: Sam Wood, Original Book: Ernest Hemingway, Stars: Ingrid Bergman, Gary Cooper, 170 m
A young soldier fighting for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War, has one night of romance before battle.

Free Willy

USA, 1993, Drama, D: Simon Wincer; Stars: Jason James RIchter, Lori Petty, 112 m
A whale, captured and put on display in an aquatic show, is freed by a lad with a mission.

USA, 1976, Drama, D: Martin Ritt, Stars: Woody Allen, Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, 94 m
A man of no talent or convictions (played by Woody Allen) is hired to be a front man for a group of blacklisted Hollywood writers during the 1950s.

Australia, 1981, Drama, D: Peter Weir, Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Harold Baigent, 110 m
A young Australian runner, training for the Olympics, signs up for the Great War. He ends up on the beaches under Turkish guns in the middle of one of the bloodiest battles of that war.

Gandhi

UK/India, 1982, Drama, D: Richard Attenborough, Stars: Ben Kingsley, Candice Bergen, Edward Fox, John Gielgud, 188 m
The life of Mohandas Gandhi, from his youth in South Africa to law school in England to his remarkable nonviolent campaign for Indian independence.>

Glory

USA, 1989, Drama, D: Edward Zwick, Stars: Denzel Washington, Matthew Broderick, Morgan Freeman, 122 m
Robert G. Shaw, the white colonel commanding the first African-American brigade to fight for the Union in the Civil War, faces the prejudice of his fellow officers and Confederate orders to shoot him on sight.

Gods Must be Crazy, The

South Africa, 1980, Comedy, D: Jamie Uys; Stars: Marius Weyers, Sandra Prinsloo, Nx!au, 109 m
A Bushman in the Kalahari Desert finds a Coke bottle after it falls from the sky. When chaos breaks out over its intended use, he decides to return it to the Gods, from whence it came.

Gorillas in the Mist

USA, 1988, Drama, D: Michael Apted Stars: Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, Julie Harris, 129 m
The story of the life of Dian Fossey, who went to Africa in 1967 to do a National Geographic article on a vanishing breed of gorillas. Her magnificent obsession is magnificently portrayed.

Gospel According to St. Matthew, The

Italy/France, 1966, Drama, D: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Stars: Enrique Irazoqi, Margherita Caruso, 135 m
This film shows the life of Jesus, simple and unadorned, according to the Gospel of Matthew. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini, a Marxist filmmaker, was invited by the Catholic Church to a conference on film, Put up in a monastery during the conference, he had only the Bible to read. After reading Matthew's Gospel, he decided to make this classic film.

Graduate, The

USA, 1967, Comedy, D: Mike Nichols, Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Richard Dreyfuss, Anne Bancroft, 104 m
Benjamin, a recent college graduate, with no idea of what to do in life, falls into an affair with his boss's wife. When he winds up on a date with her daughter and falls for her, the mother's wrath erupts.

USA/Germany, 1990, Drama, D: Volker Schlondorff, Stars: Robert Duvall, Elizabeth McGovern, Faye Dunaway, Original book: by Margaret Atwood, 109 m
In a right-wing fundamentalists successor state to the shattered United States, a woman who has been reduced to a reproductive slave of a rich military family, joins a rebellion.

Guilty by Suspicion

USA, 1991, Drama, D: Irwin Winkler, Stars: Robert de Niro, Annette Bening, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig, 105 m
A fictional Hollywood director (Robert de Niro) finds himself hauled up before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the 1950s. First he is asked about his own involvement in the Communist Party in the 1930s. Then he is asked to "name names" of friends of his who are now, or ever have been, members of the Communist Party or any organizations the committee deems to be its front groups.

Heimat - Eine deutsche Chronik

West Germany, 1984, Drama, D: Edgar Reitz, Stars: Eva Maria Bayerswalter, Gabriele Blum, Roland Bongard, 924 m
A family in the town of Schabbach on the Rhine goes from 1920s poverty to the rise of Hitler and W.W.II to West Germany prosperity.

Zweite Heimat, die - Chronik einer Jugend in 13 Filmen

Germany, 1992, Drama, D: Edgar Reitz, Stars: Henry Arnold, Eva Maria Bayerswalter, Edith Behleit, Johanna Bittenbinder, 1532 m
The story of Hermann Simon of Schabbach and his friends, from the start of university to the end of his marriage, from 1962 to 1972.

Henry V

UK, 1989, Drama, D: Kenneth Branagh, Stars: Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, Simon Shepherd, 137 m
On his way to the Battle of Agincourt against the French, Henry V rallies his dispirited troops and confronts his own doubts.

Hiding Place, The

USA, 1975, Drama, D: James F. Collier, Stars: Jeanette Cliff, Julie Harris, Eileen Heckart,
Two sisters, Corrie and Betsie ten Boom, shelter Jews in Holland during the German occupation and are discovered sent to a concentration camp.

If You Love This Planet

Canada, 1982, Documentary, D: Terre Nash, 26 m
Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, talks about the dangers of nuclear war and what we can do about it, in this award-winning documentary.
Available from: National Film Board of Canada

In Country

USA, 1989, Drama, D: Norman Jewison, Stars: Emily Lloyd, Bruce Willis, 120 m
A girl whose father died as a US soldier in Vietnam, finds his diary and comes to terms with his life and that war.

Incident at Oglala

USA, 1992, Documentary, D: Michael Apted; Stars: Robert Redford (narrator)
On July 26, 1975, a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota left two FBI agents dead. With less-than-convincing evidence, Leonard Peltier was found guilty and imprisoned for the crime.

Jack London

USA, 1948, B & W, Biography, D: Alfred Santell, Stars: Michael O'Shea, Susan Hayward, 81 m
Author Jack London's life unrolls on the screen, from cannery row to the open seas, from Yukon prospecting to university, and oh, those women he loved along the way!

Jesus of Montreal

Canada/France, 1989, Drama, D: Denys Arcand, Stars: Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, 119 m
A small group of young actors put on a Passion Play in Montreal. After resistance from the Church, and rejection by society, their story begins to parallel that of Jesus and his disciples.

JFK

USA, 1991, Biography, D: Oliver Stone, Stars: Sally Kirkland, Anthony Ramierez, Ray La Pere, Steve Reed, 189 m
The story of John Fitzgerald Kennedy's last days to his assassination in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963, and the strange events shortly thereafter, told from the point of view of New Orleans attorney Jim Garrison, who believed Kennedy to be the victim of a conspiracy .

Joe Hill

Sweden, 1971, Biography, D: Bo Widerberg; Stars: Tommy Berggren, Wendy Geier, 114 m
The story of the folk hero of the American labor movement, from his arrival from Sweden to his joining the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W. or Wobblies), to his death in front of a Salt Lake City firing squad. Joe Hill was convicted of murder charge which many now believe to be false.

USA, 1963, Drama, D: James Nielson, Stars: Kevin Corcoran, Brian Keith, 90 m
A young man loses his family in the Civil War and tags along with the army.

Jonah, Who will be 25 in the Year 2000 (Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000)

France/Switzerland, 1976, Comedy, D: Alain Tanner, Stars: Jean-Luc Bideau, Myriam Meziere, Miou-Miou, 116 m
In Geneva, burned-out 60s political activist revives enough to warn some farmers that a land developer is about to swindle them out of their farm. He and the secretary who tipped him off befriend the farm family, and start a commune with their own school for Jonah.

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance

Canada, 1993, Documentary, D: Alanis Abomsowin
This National Film Board documentary shows the Native side of the stand-off at Oka, Quebec in 1990 between the Mohawks on one side and the Surete du Quebec and the Canadian Army on the other.

USA/Brazil, 1985, Drama D: Hector Babenco, Stars: William Hurt, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, 119 m
This classic film portrays a gay man and a political prisoner locked together in a cell of a South American prison. William Hurt won an Oscar for his performance.

UK, 1979, Comedy, D: Terry Jones, Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, 93 m
Brian, a Jew living under Roman occupation, joins the Judean People's Front (challenged by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Judea), and has a hard time persuading people he is not the Messiah. Monty Python's hi-jinx are shown here in high gear.

Little Big Man

USA, 1970, Drama, D: Arthur Penn, Original Book: Thomas Berger, Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, 150 m
Jack Crab, and adopted Indian now 121 years old, reminisces about his days as a scout for General George Custer and the sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand.

Lord of the Flies

USA, 1990, Drama, D: Harry Hook, Original book: by William Golding, 90 m
British schoolboys, shipwrecked on an island, are divided. Half follow the civilized, rational Ralph and half follow Jack, the leader of the tribe of militarists.

Lost Horizon

USA, 1937, Drama, D: Frank Capra, Stars: Ronald Colman, Sam Jaffe, Edward Everett Horton, Jane Wyatt, 138 m
A small plane carrying a British diplomat (Ronald Colman) and a small group of people crash-land in the Himalayas, in the valley of Shangra-la, which offers a life away from the world of cares and corruption.

Man for All Seasons, A

UK, 1966, Drama, D: Fred Zinnemann, Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hillier, Leo McKern, 150 m
When King Henry VIII asked Lord Chancellor Thomas More to support a break with Rome and the establishment of the Church of England, More refused, and stayed loyal to his church all the way to the executioner.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media

Canada, 1992, Documentary (National Film Board of Canada) D: Mark Achbar, Stars: Noam Chomsky as himself, 110 m
World-famous linguist and American's one-man political opposition Noam Chomsky argues that big business and the US government combine to shape the news. As examples, he uses the focus on the Khmer Rouge atrocities in Kampuchea and the neglect of the slaughter of East Timorese by US-backed Indonesian troops.

Margaret's Museum

Canada, 1995, Drama, D: Mort Ransen; Stars: Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Nelligan, Clive Russell, 118 m
A young girl, who lost her father and brother to the Cape Breton mines, meets a man she adores, partly because he refuses to work in the mines. When hard times make weaken his promise, Margaret takes her revenge in a unique and chilling manner.

M*A*S*H

USA, 1970, Comedy, D: Robert Altman, Original Screenplay: Ring Lardner, Jr. Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerrit, Sally Kellerman, 116 m
The escapades of an emergency medical unit in the Korean War show the pathos of war and one of the few ways to survive it.

Matewan

USA, 1987, Drama, D: John Sayles, 132 m
West Virginia miners, hard up against the bosses in the 1920s, are united by a former Wobbly who brings together the white, African-American, and Italian workers.

Medium Cool

USA, 1969, Drama, D: Haskell Wexler, Stars: Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, 110 m
Real footage of the Chicago Democratic Convention of 1968 and the police attack upon the demonstrators outside is used in this film showing the story of a fictional TV reporter who remains coolly detached from all these events he's filming.

Midnight Clear, A

USA, 1991, Drama, D: Keith Gordon, Stars: Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, 107 m
At Christmas, 1944, US and German soldiers lose the desire to fight and change to the mock combat of a snowball fight.

Milagro Beanfield War, The

USA, 1988, Drama, D: Robert Redford, Stars: Ruben Blades, Richard Bradford, Sonia Braga, Julie Carmen, 117 m
A rugged individualist in New Mexico decides to stand up against the housing developers who are trying, by fair means or foul, to assemble the land his ancestors and his people have owned for centuries.

Mission, The

UK, 1986, Drama D: Roland Joffe, Stars: Robert de Niro, Jeremy Irons, 125 m
A Jesuit mission to the Indians in the jungles of Brazil in the 18th Century is threatened by Portuguese and Spanish colonists. The nonviolent resistance of one priest (Jeremy Irons) comes up against the cry for armed resistance by another missionary (Robert de Niro).

USA, 1986, Drama, D: Peter Weir, Stars: Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix, Original book: by Paul Theroux, 117 m
An iconoclastic environmentalist and inventor moves his family from the United States to Central America, where he becomes the autocrat of his household empire.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

USA, 1939, Drama, D: Frank Capra, Screenplay: Sydney Buchman, Lewis R. Foster; Stars: Jean Arthur, James Stuart, Claude Rains, 125 m
Idealistic young Jefferson Smith (James Stuart) is appointed to a U.S. Senate seat by the governor of his state to fill the term of a Senator who died in office. Once there, Smith challenges the corruption of the system that put him in power,

Nasty Girl, The (Das schreckliche Maedchen)

West Germany, 1990, Drama, D: Michael Verhoeven, Stars: Stella Adorf, Helmut Alimonta, Cordula Bachl, 92 m
A young woman in West Germany sets out in the 1970s to uncover the history of the town during the "braune Jahren" of the Hitler's Germany. Of course, no one in the town except the Mayor was ever a Nazi ..

Network

USA, 1976, Drama, D: Sydney Lumet, Stars: William Holden, Faye Dunaway, William Finch, Robert Duvall, 121 m
This satire by on television by Paddy Chayefsky casts Finch as a "mad prophet of the airwaves" who mesmerizes his audience.

USA, 1980, Comedy, D: Colin Higgins, Stars: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, 110 m
A dictatorial boss is locked out by his three women employees, who bring amazing efficiency to the plant - as long as their ex-chief is tied up.

1984

UK, 1984, Drama, D: Michael Radford, Original book: by George Orwell, Stars: John Hurt, Richard Burton, Susannah Hamilton, 110 m
After an atomic war, the world is carved up between three empires. London, the capital of Oceania, is ruled by a dictatorship which has total control over its citizens. Winston Smith, a bureaucrat, tries to escape with his lover, Julia.

Norma Rae

USA, 1979, Drama, D: Martin Ritt, Stars: Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman, 110 m
Norma Rae, a textile worker in the South, summons all the courage in the world to contact a labour union organizer. Their struggle has just begun.

Sent on a mission impossible, French soldiers mutiny in W.W.I, Their unit commander must deal with them and a foolhardy general.

Posse

UK, 1993, Drama, D: Mario van Peebles, Stars: Mario van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, 111 m
A group of African-American soldiers desert from the Spanish-American War and head west with stolen treasure.
Review by Susan Doll, Magill's Survey of Cinema

Pow-Wow Highway

USA, 1989, B & W, Drama, D: Jonathan Wicks, Stars: A Martinez, Gary Farmer, Joannelle Nadine Romero, 88 m
Two young Native men on the U.S. plains seek to rally their people. Philbert seeks mystical power through Native spirituality, and the other, a Vietnam War veteran named Buddy Red Bow, tries political organizing.

USA, 1981, Drama, D: Peter H. Hunt, Original Book: Mark Twain, Stars: Pat Hingle, Edward Herrmann, 90 m
Fifteen boys from Hannibal, Missouri, face the horrors of war. A dramatization of "A War Prayer" opens the film. Mark Twain, who was a deserter from a Confederate unit in the Civil War and became an anti-slavery writer, wrote the original story.

Quiz Show

USA, 1994, Drama, D: Robert Redford, Stars: John Tuturro, Rob Morrow, Ralph Fiennes, Paul Scofield, 133 m
A young lawyer working for Congress in the 1950s discovers that a famous TV quiz show is fixed (based on the true story of the $64,000 Question).

Red Badge of Courage

USA, 1951, Drama, D: John Huston, Original Book: Stephen Crane, Stars: Smith Ballew, Whit Bissell, 69 m
A soldier in the Civil War vacillates between courage and cowardice, and rallies to fight again.

Return of the Secaucus Seven, The

USA, 1980, Comedy, D: John Sayles, 110 m
A group of young anti-war protesters from the 1960s get together on the anniversary of their arrest - not for sitting in at a draft board, as was their plan, but for a traffic offence on the way to the protest.

Roger and Me

USA, 1989, Documentary Comedy, D: Michael Moore, 83 m
Moore tries to interview the Chairman of General Motors, Roger Smith, to ask him why he closed GM's plant in Flint, Michigan, eliminating thousands of jobs in that city. The footage of a Fourth of July parade in Flint, that of a woman in Flint trying to make a living selling "Rabbits: Pets or Meat", and that of Smith giving a speech at GM's Christmas Party are mischievously intermingled.

Roi de coeur (King of Hearts)

France, 1966, Comedy, D: Philippe de Broca, Stars: Alan Bates, Genevieve Bujold, 100 m
A British soldier sent into a French town in W.W. I to disarm a bomb finds himself locked up in the town's insane asylum, where the inmates, less insane than the populace during war, crown him the "King of Hearts".

Romero

USA, 1989, Drama, D: John Duigan, Stars: Raul Julia, Richard Jordan, Ana Alicia, 105 m
Bishop Romero of El Salvador spoke out against the Death Squads of the government. His reward was martyrdom.

Rosa Luxemburg

Czechoslovakia/West Germany, 1986, Biography, D: Margerethe von Trotta, Stars: Barbara Sukowa, Daniel Olbrychski, Otto Sander, 110 m
From 1898 to 1919, Polish-born Rosa Luxemburg, the hero of German Social Democrats, worked against ware and for a socialist society. Ironically, she and Karl Liebknecht were murdered in Berlin on January 15, 1919, by Freie Korps troops under the first Social Democratic government Germany ever had.

Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, The

USA, 1966, Comedy, D: Norman Jewison, Original Book: The Off-Islanders, by Nathaniel Benchley, Stars: Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Sainte, Alan Arkin, 120 m
A Russian submarine lands off New England during the Cold War and negotiates with the town.

Salt of the Earth

USA, 1954, Drama, D: Herbert Biberman, Screenplay: Herber Biberman, Michael Wilson (I); Stars: Will Geer, David Wolfe, David Sarvis, 94 m
Striking workers in the Empire Zinc mine in New Mexico are faced with the extra oppression of Mexican-Americans and women. Written, directed, and produced by members of the Hollywood Ten.

Salvador

USA, 1986, Drama, D: Oliver Stone, Stars: James Woods, James Belushi, John Savage, 123 m
A freelance journalist goes into the jungles of El Salvador to interview the rebels and gets caught between them and the government.

USA, 1948, Drama, D: Fred Zinnemann, Stars: Montgomery Clift, Ivan Jandl, Aline MacMahon, 105 m
After W.W. II, a boy is cared for in Berlin by Clift while the boy's mother searches for him in Displaced Persons' camps across Europe.

Sergeant York

USA, 1941, D: Humphrey Hawks, Stars: Gary Cooper, Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, 134 m
A pacifist, drafted in the US Army in W.W.I, turns into a military hero.

Shawshank Redemption, The

USA, 1994, Drama, D: Frank Darabont, Stars: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton, 142 m
Banker Andy Defresne, sent to Shawshank Prison in the 1940s for the murder of his wife and her lover, wins the respect of Red, the prison's black marketeer, and finally of all his fellow prisoners.

USA, 1983, Drama, D: Mike Nichols ; Stars: Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell, Cher, 128 m
A woman who works in a nuclear parts factory in Oklahoma discovers some strange goings-on and winds up dead in an accident that looks like a set-up.

Switzerland, 1970, Documentary, D: Marcel Ophuls, 260 m
The stories of survivors of W.W. II in Clermont-Ferrand, France - both collaborators and resisters to Petain and the German Occupiers.

Soylent Green

USA, 1973, Drama, D: Richard Fleischer ; Stars: Charlton Heston, Edgar G. Robinson, Leigh Taylor-Young, 100 m
Set in the year 2022, an investigator (Charlton Heston) who is going after a murderer, discovers an astounding secret which has been hushed up by the government.

Spartacus

USA, 1960, Drama, D: Stanley Kubrick, Stars: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, 161 m (restored version 198 m)
Spartacus, a slave trained as a gladiator, was forced to fight to the death with an opponent around 71 B.C. His opponent spared him, and Spartacus went on to lead a slave revolt which spread over half of Italy.

France, 1981, Drama, D: Claude Lelouche, Stars: James Caan, Evelyne Bouix, Geraldine Chaplin 173 m
Three generations of dancers from the USA, France, Germany and the Soviet Union live through W.W. I to the Holocaust to the 1960s.

Until the End of the World (Bis ans Ende der Welt)

Australia/Germany, 1991, Drama, D: Wim Wenders, Stars: Solveig Dommartin, William Hurt, Sam Neill, Jeanne Moreau, 179 m
Solveig Dommartin falls in with some bank robbers and then escapes with William Hurt, who is being pursued by the CIA on a trumped-up charge because the agency wants to get hold of his instruments, which record dreams and give sight to the blind.

Viridiana

Mexico/Spain, 1961, Drama, D: Luis Bunuel, Stars: Francisco Rabal, Silvia Pinal, 90 m
A novice nun named Viridiana rejects the assaults of her uncle and opens her house to all the poor, the beggars and the destitute of the town - with unexpected results.

Walkabout

Australia, 1971, Drama, D: Jenny Agutter, Lucien John, David Gulpilil, 100 m
Two British schoolchildren, stranded in the Outback, join an Aboriginal man on his Walkabout, a ritual banishment from the tribe.

West Germany, 1987, Drama, D: Wim Wenders, Stars: Bruno Ganz, Otto Sander, Solveig Dommartin, Peter Falk; Original Screenplay: Wim Wenders, Peter Handke and Richard Reitinger, 127 m
Two angels whose turf is Berlin, disguise themselves as ageing hippie men with shabby overcoats, ponytails and smiling faces. One angel, Damiel (Bruno Ganz), tires of his life of observing, recording, and consoling, but never intervening, and above all, never feeling. Damiel is tempted to try mortality by ex-angel Peter Falk, an actor in Berlin to do an anti-war movie about Nazi Germany. Damiel gets his wish to become mortal and comes crashing to earth beside the Berlin Wall. He searches for the mortal he has fallen in love with, a woman named Marion (Solveig Dommartin), a beautiful trapeze artist in a two-bit circus.

Weisse Rose, Die (The White Rose)

West Germany, 1982, Drama, D: Michael Verhoeven, Stars: Martin Benrath, Wulf Kessler, Lena Stolze , 123 m
In Munich in 1942, two students, Hans and Sophie Scholl, join an underground resistance group against Hitler. They distribute leaflets and make contacts in other cities. Then the Gestapo finds their trail.

World Apart, A

UK, 1988, Drama, D: Chris Menges, Stars: Barbara Hershey, Jodhi May, 112 m
A 13-year-old white girl, growing up in South Africa in the 1960s, has all the usual trappings of power - except that her parents are anti-apartheid activists. Her father is forced to flee the country, and her mother goes to work for an anti-government newspaper.